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The partial basement holds storage and an entertainment room. A skylight over the stairs floods the area with natural light.

The architects used cedar slats to enclose a steel-and-concrete staircase that leads to the master bedroom upstairs.

The cedars slats filter natural light.

Owners Jill and Toby Gebben went on their first date by the shores of Lake Michigan, and long dreamed of building their own lakeside cottage.

A screen made from concrete breeze-blocks allows breeze and filtered light into the stairwell.

The café’s polished concrete floors are ground down to “expose some of the aggregate,” Mike says. Vintage leather chairs balance a custom banquette, upholstered in a forest-green wool felt by Kravet.

Kitchen

The house that stood on the lot before was the same square footage as just one townhome, but Chris was able to maximize the amount of usable outdoor space by adding backyards and a garden between his and Miranda’s unit and the street.

Upstairs, a 150-square-foot flex space can work as an office, media area, or lounge. "The view and the light are so nice, I’m thinking of making it a joint workspace so coworkers can come work here when it’s safe," says Nils. A Perimeter pendant light from Blu Dot illuminates the stairway.

A restrained palette of wood and white makes the architecture a neutral backdrop. "It’s kind of cliché, but we believe you can create good spaces simply with modest materials and light," says Legge. The stairs are oak, and the built-in shelving is Douglas fir.

The wooden staircase is a nod to the original timber cabin.

Burley Friedman Laneway House by LGA Architectural Partners

Materiality is key to its integration into the environment and the landscape. The scale and volumetric language of the building is generous, while being closely tied to an economy of space, material and structure.